Latest news with #R5m
IOL News
10-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Joburg's Project Lokisa: A bold move to recover R61 billion in municipal debt
The City of Johannesburg has launched Project Lokisa in an attempt to recover billions of rand it is owed by businesses, government, and residents. Image: Cara Viereckl / Independent Newspapers The City of Johannesburg is intensifying its efforts to reduce its nearly R61 billion consumer debt by targeting the municipality's worst defaulters. Project Lokisa will be an aggressive debt recovery focusing on the city's biggest defaulters, particularly large electricity and water consumers with properties valued above R100 million, high-valued residential properties valued at more than R5m, businesses, government departments, and state-owned entities. According to the National Treasury's latest available figures, as of the end of December last year, the country's eight metropolitan municipalities were owed more than R206bn, with households responsible for about R154bn, businesses almost R43bn while the debt owed by organs of state stood at R7.73bn. In total, municipal consumer debt across the country was just over R405bn, with households about 72% (or R291.1bn) and the government 5.6% (R22.7bn). Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ This week, the City of Joburg announced the launch of Project Lokisa, which means to fix or sort out, and the municipality described it as a multifaceted approach aiming to claw back the money owed for municipal services by the worst defaulters. The large scale and bold reform also aims to improve revenue recovery and ensure the municipality's financial sustainability. Acting group head of revenue and shared Malope Ramagaga said Project Lokisa will encompass the implementation of large-scale disconnection operations across the city, targeting mostly worst defaulters, with an intense focus on illegal connections and the constant monitoring of the impact of disconnection on customers. Ramagaga also indicated that under Project Lokisa, changes will be introduced to the process of issuing clearance certificates when owners sell their properties. He said this was to ensure that the municipality does not lose money owed for municipal services by the seller when they finally put their property on sale. 'A clearance certificate will be provided to the transferring attorney and the customer with a notice of the total amount owing above 90 days. Attorneys will be given notice to sign an acknowledgment of debt, which will authorise direct payment to the city from the sale proceeds,' Ramagaga explained. The municipality has urged all property owners and businesses to settle their outstanding accounts or alternatively make payment arrangements to avoid disconnections and legal action.
TimesLIVE
03-06-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
‘We have to wait and see': Jordaan dribbles parliament on fourth term at Safa
South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan dribbled past some fuming members of parliament's portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture on Tuesday when asked if he will stand for a fourth term in Safa's election next year. Jordaan has been president of Safa since 2013, serving almost three terms in an association that admitted it is battling cash flow issues, presenting a financial year statement for 2023-2024 in its presentation to the committee that showed a loss of R5.4m. Gronie Hluyo, who has been Safa's CFO since 2007, said part of the reason the association reported a deficit is because most of its national teams, especially the juniors, are not attracting sponsors, meaning the cash-strapped association has to fund them from its pockets. The sports ministry had to bail Safa out for R5m towards the end of last year when it failed to pay the bonuses of Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana players. Safa will repay that debt in the next financial year through receiving R1.7m instead of the normal annual grant of R6.7m from the department of sports.
TimesLIVE
28-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
KZN municipality to give poor 10,000 litres of free water a month
Poor households in the iLembe district municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast will get 10,000 litres of water for free per month, while the rich will have to pay 13% more. At a media briefing in KwaDukuza on Wednesday after passing a budget of R1.9bn for the financial year 2025/2026, iLembe mayor Thobani Shandu said they regretted the increased water tariffs. 'The council has adopted a 13% increase for water and sanitation, down from the proposed 13.5% tabled during the council sitting of March 26,' said Shandu. 'It is important to note our increment is aligned with uMngeni-uThukela Water's bulk tariff hike. We are unlike some of neighbours who have opted to add input costs. 'Households valued at R130,000 or less will be exempt from sewer charges. These charges will be capped to the household value of R5m.'
The Citizen
22-05-2025
- The Citizen
Court seizes assets in alleged R5m Mpumalanga PPE fraud case
While many people were affected by Covid-19 in 2020, a Mpumalanga Department of Health official allegedly financially benefited from personal protective equipment (PPE) funding. Mpumalanga News reports that this has resulted in a high court preservation order for the forfeiture of a property and three vehicles, amounting to millions of rands, against the people involved. Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson Colonel Magonseni Nkosi says a former secretary in the provincial health department, Sanele Sanderson, allegedly colluded with two service providers in faking the purchasing and delivery of the PPE. 'The director's secretary engaged herself in alleged fraudulent activities that led to the department suffering a loss of about R5m in 2020,' says Nkosi. 'As a result, the service providers unlawfully benefited from the products that were never delivered,' he adds. He says Sanderson's alleged actions resulted in the service providers receiving payment and buying a residential property worth R1.5m in Barberton. The house was registered under the name of a company called Zanderson Establishment, of which the sole director was Sanderson's daughter, Yolanda Sanderson. 'The property was later sold for the same amount. Shortly afterwards, the family bought another residential property in Sunninghill, Johannesburg. The house was then registered in [the name of] a company named SS Umoya, directed by the former secretary, Sanele Sanderson,' says Nkosi. He says investigations conducted by the Hawks resulted in the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court, sitting in Mbombela, ordering the forfeiture of the Sunninghill house and three vehicles on Tuesday. 'The forfeited house is estimated to be valued at R1.5m and the three vehicles, owned by the two service providers, a Toyota Quantum, a Hyundai light delivery vehicle and a VW Golf, are estimated to have a combined value of R1m,' Nkosi adds. The provincial head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Major General Nico Gerber, says criminal investigations are ongoing. 'Benefits derived from proceeds of crime will be traced, restrained, forfeited and sold to recoup the state's losses. 'This is a clear example of law enforcement entities working in collaboration with one another. The Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority and the Asset Investigation Section of the Hawks collaborated and ensured the successful forfeiture. This must send a stern message that we will seize assets, no matter how they are disguised, if bought through proceeds of crime. Crime must not pay,' he adds. Breaking news at your fingertips… Follow Caxton Network News on Facebook and join our WhatsApp channel. Nuus wat saakmaak. Volg Caxton Netwerk-nuus op Facebook en sluit aan by ons WhatsApp-kanaal. Read original story on At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
21-05-2025
- The Citizen
High court orders that assets be seized after alleged R5m Covid-19 PPE fraud uncovered
While many people were being affected by the prevalence of Covid-19 in 2020, a Mpumalanga Department of Health official financially allegedly benefitted illegally from personal protective equipment (PPE) funding. This has resulted in a high court preservation order for the forfeiture of a property and three vehicles amounting to millions of rand against the involved individuals. The Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson, Colonel Magonseni Nkosi, said a former secretary in the provincial health department, Sanele Sanderson, allegedly colluded with two service providers in faking the purchasing and delivery of the PPE. 'The director's secretary engaged herself in alleged fraudulent activities that led to the department suffering a loss of about R5m in 2020,' said Nkosi. 'As a result, the service providers unlawfully benefitted from the products that were never delivered,' added Nkosi. ALSO READ: Alleged Mpumalanga fraud and corruption accused released on bail He said Sanderson's alleged actions resulted in the service providers receiving payment and buying a residential property worth R1.5m in Barberton. The house was registered under a name of a company called Zanderson Establishment, of which the sole director happened to be Sanderson's daughter, Yolanda Sanderson. 'The property was later sold for the same amount. Shortly afterwards, the family bought another residential property in Sunninghill, Johannesburg. The house was then registered in a company named SS Umoya, directed by the former secretary, Sanele Sanderson,' said Nkosi. He said investigations conducted by the Hawks resulted in the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court, sitting in Mbombela, ordering the forfeiture of the Sunninghill house and three vehicles on Tuesday, May 20. 'The forfeited house is estimated to be valued at R1.5m and the three vehicles, owned by the two service providers, a Toyota Quantum, a Hyundai light delivery vehicle and a VW Golf, are estimated to have a combined value of R1m,' Nkosi explained. The provincial head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Major General Nico Gerber, said criminal investigations in this matter were ongoing. 'Benefits derived from proceeds of crime will be traced, restrained, forfeited and sold to recoup the state's losses. This is a clear example of law enforcement entities working in collaboration with one another. The Asset Forfeiture Unit of the NPA and the Asset Investigation Section of the Hawks collaborated and ensured the successful forfeiture. This must send a stern message that we will seize assets, no matter how they are disguised, if bought through proceeds of crime. Crime must not pay,' warned Gerber. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
